Never Meant to Hurt You
by Desired Constellation
Summary: 'Tell me you don't love me anymore.' Will sees Elizabeth for the first time after the Black Pearl's destruction, and things get a little out of control...


This is immediately post-DMC, narrating Will's and Elizabeth's first real encounter while trying to deal with the situation. And, as you are about to find out, things get a little out of hand...

-

Will feverishly paced his cramped room, his mind on fire. It was a hot night in Tia Dalma's hut, three days after the demise of the Black Pearl. Ever since the incident, he hadn't been able to look his fiancee in the eye, nor could he properly mourn the death of Jack.

_That kiss._

The vision seared into Will's eyes forever, burning up his emotions, blackening his once naive heart. And yet, he still loved her. A love that hurt him more than any physical blow. And now this love crippled him, stopped him from smiling or feeling anything but this sinking void. _How could she have hurt him like that? _All this time, Will believed in the power of love. Their love. But what was it now?

He closed his eyes.

_Elizabeth's lips against Jack's, their bodies intertwined like snakes aboard the doomed ship. Sparking. Flaming._

"Will?"

The blacksmith swerved around, his heart palpitating from shock and adrenaline and devastation. It was the girl in his vision - the only one he had dreamt about for ten long years - now appearing before him as a woman he couldn't even recognize.

"Elizabeth," he breathed, his shaking hand tightly gripped around his father's dagger.

She stood at the threshold of the tiny room. He could feel her nervous energy as it mixed with his and saturated the muggy air. The shadows of flames licked the wall, bringing to life willowy silhouettes of lives that once existed.

"Will, I just wanted to say..." She trailed off.

_Say what? What could she possibly have to say now?_

"... that I'm sorry." Her words were barely audible, lost among the screaming of Will's thoughts. His dark eyes shot up, and finally met hers for the first time in nights.

The intensity of his gaze startled Elizabeth at first. Her hopes fell at his inability to sense her pain. She had hurt him more than she realized, and now there was this stranger looking back at her through pained, unreadable eyes.

"Sorry for what?" His voice had a steel edge to it.

Elizabeth approached him brazenly, timidly placing a delicate hand on his shoulder. "Please, Will. If you could only let me explai--"

In a flash, Will grabbed her hand, and lifted his dagger with the other. Elizabeth gasped as he raised it and plunged the blade into the fabric of her sleeve, pinning her to the wall behind them. He was hairs away from the tense, pounding pulse in her wrist.

"Explain what?" he demanded coldly, his face inches from hers. "Did you like it when you kissed him?" he seethed into her ear, the scent of lavender and fear falling on to his clouded senses. "Better than when you kiss me?"

He pressed his lips roughly against hers in a moment of bruising contact, surprising Elizabeth and leaving her desperately breathless. It was the first time he had ever been anything other than gentle with her. It made his whole body tingle, and unconsciously let reason dissipate into the smoky air. When he relented, she pleaded with him in vain.

"Is that how you want it? Shall I be rough to you, just like Jack?" he spat his name out with spite, and proceeded to allow his rough hands to wander down her trembling bodice.

"Will, please..."

"This _is _what you want, isn't it?" A gasp escaped from her lips as he ripped open her blouse with the satisfying sound of recklessness. They were both breathing hard now, unable to control their actions. Will watched himself from a distant corner as he exposed his virginal fiancee for the first time and ran his hands along her hot, shivering skin. He couldn't help but derive twisted pleasure from seeing her squirm under his touch, unable to free herself from his hold.

"Am I as good as Jack? Will I ever be, Miss Swann?" He trailed burning kisses down her neck into the plunge of her breasts. He sensed her trying to fight her physical inclinations, biting her lip to keep a moan of reluctant pleasure from betraying her.

"Will!" she cried in desperation, terrified and humiliated all at once. Her body was bathed in candle-lit moonlight, framed by Will's lean, muscular tradesman figure. If one did not know better, the two would seem to be in a passionate tryst. Elizabeth screamed as he bit her nipple, sending jolts of black electricity down between her legs. "Oh god..." His hip ground painfully, sensually, into hers, making her knees weak and her cheeks flush. They were both overcome by an unknown power, one that lived on lust and jealousy and tear-streaked betrayal. She never wanted it to happen like this...

One hand still kneading her breast painfully, he used the other to push the girl's matted hair out of her face, and looked into her eyes once more.

"Tell me you don't love me anymore."

And suddenly, everything came back into real, gritty focus. _What have I done?_ Will wondered in disbelief, raising his hands and stepping back as if controlled by strings. At once, the sleeve of Elizabeth's dress ripped from its hold and she fell to her knees, torn and exposed both outside and in.

"I never meant to hurt you," she barely choked out.

Will shook, disgusted at himself and what he had just committed. He dropped down to the uneven floor and tried at once to calm Elizabeth. His heart panged when she flinched at his touch. "Lis, I'm so sorry." He gathered her helpless form into his arms with a gentleness that fiercely contrasted the past moment, and they sat together and cried.

"I'm sorry, so sorry, so sorry," he whispered a hundred times into her ear. He realized then that no matter how much she hurt him, he could never bring himself to stop loving her. Ever since she cared for him when they were children, ever since they boarded the Black Pearl...even as she kissed the only man Will had ever come to trust...

"I love you." The words spilled from Will's lips even as he came to accept that he may never hear them from her again.

A long silence ensued, broken only by the groan of the hut and their shallow, cautious breathing.

"Will, I-I love you too."

And for the rest of the night, they lay there, clinging tightly to each other like two innocent, lost children.

-

Thank you for reading. Constructive criticism is much appreciated.


End file.
